A wide variety of shaft bearings and/or seals have been disclosed by the prior art. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,955,860; 2,130,741; 2,374,960; 2,857,213 and 3,870,381. The devices disclosed in the above-mentioned prior art patents and a prior device utilized heretofore by the assignee of this invention and to be described in detail hereinafter have various disadvantages. For example, the prior art devices do not provide for at least partial pre-assembly, do not facilitate shaft alignment and/or packing seal replacement without extensive repair, while having other disadvantages such as requiring machining of the frame, requiring special tooling, etc.
The bearing seal of the present invention overcomes the above disadvantages while at the same time having advantages which do not result from the prior art constructions.